7 Quick Takes: Cosmas and Damian, Grocery Shopping, and Cheesesteaks

--1--

Did you know today is the feast of Sts. Cosmas and Damian?

Did you even know who they were?  I mean, you hear their names during the Canon of the Mass (John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian), but did you know that they were twins?

Wouldn't you want to be forever memorialized holding a bottle of urine?

Anyway, this feast day holds particular significance to us because it was on this day exactly 2 years ago that we found out we were having twins.  And we were ALL SET to name them Cosmas and Damian but then they were girls, and we weren't about to saddle them with feminizations of those names.

--2--

Speaking of twins, Cecilia gave birth to twins yesterday.  And then they grew up and she had another baby.  She works even faster than me, apparently...

I've been compiling some of her latest parenting wisdom and went back to find good pictures of her with babies and there are some SERIOUS gems in the archives!  Need a laugh?

The Art of Raising a Baby: A How-To Guide by a 3-Year-Old

Infant massage?

--3--

But her parenting advice has gotten me all introspective and thinking about how this all went down last time - I told a friend last night that I keep feeling like it's gonna be no problem adding another baby into the mix because we already kind of have to keep things so low-key around here that adding a nursing baby into things feels like NOTHING!

And then I think, "Well, maybe this baby will throw us for a loop!  Maybe there will be health problems, or maybe we'll have a colicky baby, or maybe..."

And then I remember that life doesn't necessarily work like that...  Just because we've been fortunate health-wise doesn't mean we're "due" for some sort of misfortune!

--4--

And while we're talking babies (I know, I know, ALL the pregnancy talk), I'm having to pay a lot more attention to what my body's telling me these days.  I don't know if it's a 4th pregnancy thing, or a being pregnant while staying at home with four little kids thing, or a getting older thing, or what, but I'm feeling the need to slow down a LOT more than I did at this point with John Paul and Cecilia.  Honestly, it's on par with the twin pregnancy right now, which is really frustrating because I still want to DO ALL THE THINGS!

But yeah, once dinner hits all I can really do is eat my food and then lie on the couch trying not to have contractions because my body is DONE.  Almost 34 weeks!  I don't think we're in danger of any preterm labor or anything, but it's annoying!

Moms of many - does it just get harder as you get older? Is it just because I have to spend so much time picking up the twins still and I'm overdoing it?

--5--

We ran out of milk yesterday morning and Andrew forgot to stop at the store on his way home from rehearsal, so I had the brilliant idea that I would just take all the kids to Trader Joe's by myself!  It was going to be so easy!

And then I realized that since I can't really babywear anymore, the only way to do this would be to push one cart and pull another with one twin in each, all while trying to police John Paul and Cecilia pushing their kiddie carts...

And then I would have to load all the groceries into the car AND carry them into the house (including 4 gallons of milk...).

So yeah, I realized that was maybe my worst idea ever, so I texted Andrew and we picked him up from work and he came with us and I AM SO GLAD because it was a serious zoo in there.  At 11 AM on a Friday?  Why are these people not at work???  It would have been a total disaster going without another adult.


--6--

Normally one of us goes after the kids are in bed, and it's glorious and wonderfully empty and I adooooore it, although I'm too exhausted these days so Andrew goes pretty much every time.  But every time I go with the kids I'm reminded of how much easier it was to go before the kids started talking and REMEMBERING everything!

"MOM!  What's that you just put in the cart?  Is that for US to eat???" As I try to hide the tasty coffee truffles I just put in the cart.

"Are we going to get the fruit bars this time as a treat because we did such a good job???"  No, grab a free lollipop from the front of the store and leave me alone!

There is no buying of contraband items while the kids can see, because they always expect me to share.  Sigh.

--7--

I fought through the exhaustion and made a dozen cheesesteak wraps for dinner last night and froze 7 of them for after the baby's born!  I felt a little selfish because I loaded them all with onions and peppers and I'm the only one in the house who will eat those (everyone else just gets straight meat and cheese with raw peppers on the side), buuuut then I remembered that I'm going to be starving all the time while nursing a newborn, and I might as well have some yummy lunches in the fridge for myself!

I'll get a recipe post together for you soon because they're reeeeeeeally delicious and way less messy to eat than a regular cheesesteak!

And I'll stop there because I think I've hit 7!  Go say hi to Jen and other Quick Takers at Conversion Diary.